‘V/H/S 3′ Reveals Official Title, Image, Directors, and Details

Whether or not we’re in the middle of something of a horror genre renaissance depends on who you talk to, but the popularity of small screen offerings like FX’s American Horror Story, the ever-growing audience of NBC’s Hannibaland the success of modestly-budgeted big-screen fare like The Conjuring and the Insidiousmovies at least prove that the genre is here to stay, and always will be.

The found-footage subset of horror has delivered some big hits – The Blair Witch Project, the Paranormal Activityseries – along with some huge disappointments, both creatively and financially. The found-footage approach appears to be winding down – the upcoming Amityville reboot has dropped that aspect, for example – but the anthology series V/H/Shas proven popular enough to keep coming back to life.

We now have some details on the film, the list of the next batch of directors, and a new image, courtesy of Screen Daily. It sounds like this next entry will move away from the loose narrative connecting the found-footage shorts from the first movies, and the new title and synopsis reflects this. The next sequel will be titled V/H/S Viraland apparently centers on “fame-obsessed teens who unwittingly become stars of the next internet sensation.”

The previous entries contained a mixed bag of short horror films from a variety of directors and now we have a list of V/H/S Viral‘s contributors: Todd Lincoln (The Apparition), Nacho Vigalondo (the upcoming Open Windows), Marcel Sarmiento (The ABCs of Death), Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead), Justin Benson (Resolution) and Aaron Moorhead (A Glaring Emission). The cast will feature a familiar face to fans of Justified and The Crazies in the form of Justin Welborn, with Emmy Argo the only other named thespian involved.

Also, check out the first image for V/H/S Viral below (click the image to enlarge):

V/H/S 2 was a decided improvement over its predecessor, with the strongest segments helmed by some innovative directors, like Gareth Evans (The Raid 2), and Blair Witch‘s Eduardo Sánchez. Once again, the line-up of the third V/H/S film features an entirely new roster of talent – and this might prove to be its main weakness.

With the possible exception of Nacho Vigalondo and Marcel Sarmiento, both of whom worked on The ABCs of Death, none of these directors are particularly well-known, even among hardcore horror fans. The previous entries included segments by some very interesting directors, like Ti West (The Sacrament) and Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies), and at this point the new line-up feels more run of the mill than anything else.

The new approach feels even more gimmicky than ever, what with the newfangled interweb angle, and sounds close to the premise of director Zachary Donohue’s The Den, which takes place entirely through webcams and video chatrooms. Can new blood take the franchise in an engaging direction, or has the V/H/S experiment run its course? We’ll find out soon.

V/H/S Viralcurrently has no release date. Stay tuned for more details.